Three men were held up at gunpoint early this morning in Central Park — the third violent incident in the Manhattan oasis in the past 10 days, cops said.
Police nabbed one suspect, Ramelle Moore, 20, of the Upper West Side and were on the hunt for two more in connection with the most recent incident, which occurred at 12:30 a.m.
Moore and his accomplices allegedly accosted two men in their 20s near 102nd Street and the East Drive. Moore pointed a gun at the pair while his two accomplices took a bank card and a wallet from them, police said.
A third man, 46, happened upon the stickup-in-progress and was robbed as well, police said.
After the trio of perps fled, the victims dialed 911 and gave a description of their attackers to cops. A police canvass of the immediate area turned up Moore.
The scene of the stickup is not far from the spot where the Central Park Jogger, Trisha Meili, was raped, beaten and left in a coma Apr. 19, 1989.
In the two decades since, New Yorkers have seen the park shed its once-infamous reputation as a wilderness few would enter after dark.
But today’s attack and the two recent others offered some reasons to remember the caution with which New Yorkers treated Central Park.
On Nov. 2, at 7:20 p.m., near East Drive and the Great Lawn, a 62-year-old Upper West Side man was approached from behind by two robbers, one armed with a gun, who took his Blackberry, wallet, $100 cash, Visa card and driver’s license, cops said. The perps were described as white and Asian men.
On Oct. 29, at 4:10 p.m., on a foot path near 97th Street and the West Drive, a 21-year-old Upper West Side man was put in a chokehold by one attacker while another struck him on his forehead. The perps, described as black males, fled without taking anything.
Police do not believe the three incidents are connected.
“It’s horrifying,” said Upper East Sider Bobbi Edelson, who’s lived in the area for 30 years. “You can’t grow complacent and think everything is safe, and you should be extra careful in the park at night.”